Residential Consumer-Centric Demand Side Management

Energy management systems (EMS) are mainly price driven with minimal consumer interaction. To improve the effectiveness of EMS in the context of demand response, an alternative EMS control framework driven by resident behavior patterns is developed. Using hidden Markov modeling techniques, the EMS detects consumer behavior from real-time aggregate consumption and a pre-built dictionary of reference models. These models capture variations in consumer habits as a function of daily living activity sequence. Following a training period, the system identities the best lit model which is used to estimate the current state of the resident. When a request to activate a time-shiftable appliance is made, the control agent compares grid signals, user convenience constraints, and the current consumer state estimate to predict the likelihood that the future aggregate load exceeds a consumption threshold during the operating cycle of the requested device. Based on the outcome, the control agent initiates or defers the activation request. Using three consumer reference models, a case study assessing EMS performance with respect to model detection, state estimation, and control as a function of consumer comfort and grid-informed consumption constraints is presented. A tradeoff analysis between comfort, consumption threshold, and appliance activation delay is demonstrated.